Guerilla tactics

[Scippio Hollandia]

i'd like to use guerilla tactics but first i have few questions.

How do i protect my settlements with small groups?
What is a good faction to use as guerillas(I think Numidia)?
How large and of what composition should i make my groups?

[Ares82]

I think either Sarmatia or Parthia for hit and run tactics. Nothing beats Horse Archers for hit and run. With Sarmatians I like to have 4-6 HA and 2 units of their Heavy Cavalry. Use the HA to lure away some units from the main body of the army and hit em from behind with your Heavy Cavalry. Obviously with hit and run tactics your main goal in each battle should not be victory but rather to cause as many casualties with your arrows as possible. Your HA should never engage in melee as they will get destroyed by almost anything. Once you run out of arrows you should retreat, unless of course you've caused enough casualties where your Heavy Cavalry can deal with anything that's left.

And watch out for archers and slingers they can really put a dent in your HA army if you don't deal with them fast.

Best way to protect your settlements is to never let them get attacked in the first place. Sarmatia or Parthia doesn't have any infantry other then archers, so only other infantry you can get is AoR infantry. Some of those are really useless, so it's better not to rely on them being able to defend for you. Use spies and watch towers to spot enemies from a distance and attack them.

[Oddball_E8]

when i played as sarmatia i just got myself about 50/50 HA and regular archers... set them up in two lines and had skirmish on... this usually split up the enemy army so much that every enemy unit would be with their backs to at least one of my units...

suffice to say that it was a slaughter... even when it came to macedonians and other successor nations...

[Dramascus]

playing defensively in general is stupid since the AI just keeps pumping out more and more troops from all its settlements due to its cash bonuses assuming you play VH campaign. as soon as you go to war with a neighbouring nation you need to take their cities in as quick succession as you can to avoid this.

when i played as numidia i kept a small unit of horse javelineers/generals to patrol the desert picking off carthaginian troops, while the armies i used to take cities where usually just rag tag groups of mostly skirmishers, some slingers and some spearmen. killing off armies using a pure cavalry army requires alot of micro management in battle which can be quite satisying in its result but does become somewhat tiresome after a while. once you blitz the carthaginians you can afford to field land armies though. thats the thing really, once you have land and money you will likely prefer the ease and convenience of using infantry.

you should siege cities with less troop strength than the defending forces so that they sally and attack you, allowing you to destroy them in the field and take their city without assaulting, which is difficult if youve got an army full of skirmishers.

if you do assaults sometimes a handy tip for killing the last unit that stands in the town centre is to lure them out with javelins then hit them really hard from behind with lots of cavalry so they rout outside the square and therefore the victory conditions are met and you can finish the battle without having to fight them to the death.

the first few turns are very important, if you somehow manage to lose your starting army in the beginning you should proabably just save yourself some time and restart.

[The Walrus]

If you mean guerilla tactis as in taking enemy cities, destroying all the buildings, then leaving it and having it rebel could make a CTD.